This chapter has been proof-read by: gcman01

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On top of a hill offering a view of the ocean, a man wearing a black demonic looking armor is watching the sunset. Next to him stands a small woman with glasses, black hair and a maid outfit.

“This may be my last sunset... I'm glad I get to share it with you Anaïs.” (Black Knight)

“Sorry, no corresponding dialogue.” (Anaïs)

“It's already been 2 weeks since the last player logged out... Alterlife 2 will be launched tomorrow and this world will disappear along with us in the process...” (Black Knight)

“Sorry, no corresponding dialogue.” (Anaïs)

'... It's seriously hard to have a conversation with this stupid A.I...' (Black Knight)

“Command [SHOW TITTIES!]” (Black Knight)

“Sorry, not a valid command.” (Anaïs)

“Guhuhuhuu*” (Black Knight)

“...” (Anaïs)

“Sighhhh...... Go and do whatever you want with the few minutes we have left Anaïs. Command: [DISMISSED]” (Black Knight)

“Yes master.” (Anaïs)

Just with that the maid left towards the city near their location leaving the man on his own. That lonely man is me, Nicolas Pen. I'm not sure about my age but I should be around 30 “IRL” years old... Nickname: Kneeko, Gender: male, occupation: Demon Lord.

Now, you probably have many questions in your mind but the answers are far from simple. First of all I should mention that I am technically dead... I died a few years back during a motorcycle accident. I was in a coma for a few months before finally being declared dead.

For anyone else this would have been the end of the story but the biggest difference in my case would be my father. Diego Pen, neuroscientist and co founder of Alterlife, the first VRMMO worth being called as such. Father was researching everything related to brain data transfer, treatment of information and most of all A.I. based on WBE.

Whole brain emulation (WBE) or mind uploading (sometimes called "mind copying" or "mind transfer") is the hypothetical process of copying mental content (including long-term memory and "self") from a particular brain substrate and copying it to a computational device, such as a digital, analog, quantum-based or software-based artificial neural network. The computational device could then run a simulation model of the brain informational processing, such that it responds in essentially the same way as the original brain (i.e., indistinguishable from the brain for all relevant purposes) and experiences having a conscious mind.

All this mumbo jumbo... Only father understood what it really meant... But thanks to his research, while I was in a coma with my internal organs shutting down one after the other, father uploaded my brain into a super computer and eventually succeeded in uploading “me” into the systems of Alterlife.

This allowed me to keep living inside the game as if I was still alive but it was lacking. Being the first of it's kind, Alterlife systems were still archaic and you couldn't smell, taste or feel the world around you as well as you could in real life. For example, pain was felt as tingling or numbness... Every food item tasted like chalk.. I was alive yes, but in a bland world.

Being digitized had given me a photographic memory but it could be a curse as much as a blessing... Everybody have things they wish they could forget, but in my case it was impossible. Maybe if I had access to the computer holding my data I could manually delete the memory?! But it can't be that simple I suppose...

After this, father had thrown his body and soul into the next GEN systems hoping to finally create a world and living experience similar to that of the real world. He hoped to offer me a second world to live in even better than the one I was born into. A world that felt real up to the tiniest details.

This promised world was to be known as Alterlife 2. A world changing system using the finest technology this world had to offer. Well that is now all in the past, father ruined his health because of his obsession for his work, fell ill and died at the age of 64 years old.

I couldn't even be by his side at the moment of his death... What a useless son I am. With his death, died the hope of a second life for me. But it was alright, I was but a copy of my original self. The real me had already died 10 years ago.

I was 20 years old when I died. I lived 10 years in this game and since time is 5 time faster in the game I had already lived the equivalent of 70 years... It was a weird life, but a long one none the less. I was satisfied, it was enough... I had lived far long enough.

In Alterlife, since I wasn't using the system but was IN the system, I was considered a NPC. Father had also given me access to admin commands so I could entertain myself as I wanted. In the end I had given myself the title of “Demon Lord”, had taken over a castle and hid a treasure in the basement.

That way I always had people coming to see me and “play” with me... I lost only once, to a party of 20 high rankers... Even as a cheat character, there is a limit to my power. Each time I died, I re-spawned after a reset of my stats. That way I could feel the “I don't want to die” type of emotions adding to the realism of my (not so real) life.

Now Alterlife was at the end of it's life... Alterlife 2 was going to be released tomorrow, access to the servers had been closed for 2 weeks already as they updated the systems. Tonight, my entire world was going to be erased (myself included) in order to launch the new game.

I would have loved to see Alterlife 2... The life work of father, I would never get to see. This was also the last sunset I would ever see. I opened the web browser window and looked at the Alterlife 2 website for the last time. In Alterlife you could have access to the internet while in game via a Zomilla Waterfox window. This had been my only means of staying in touch with the real world while being stuck in this game. When I was bored, U-toob always came to the rescue.

On their website was a countdown before release. H-00:01:27 minutes.

“This is it... I'm coming to see you soon father.” (Kneeko)

H-00:00:04

H-00:00:03

H-00:00:02

H-00:00:01

H-00:00:00

Then everything went black.

-Game over-

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“What the hell?” (Kneeko)

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[...]

“TOO SLOW!!!!!!” (Kneeko)

[A few mi-... Hours later.]

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*Relaxing ambient music playing in the background*

I was suddenly in an empty space that felt as if it was underwater, everything was sky blue with white circular pastern oscillating around like some sort of screen-saver... Then this appeared.

WELCOME TO ALTERLIFE 2